Congratulations to Pennsylvania's first same-sex married couple: Editorial Quick Take

The American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of 23 Pennsylvania residents on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in federal court in Harrisburg seeking to force the state to allow them to marry or recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. The plaintiffs in Whitewood v. Corbett are comprised of 10 gay and lesbian couples from across the state, a widow who lost her spouse after 29 years together and two teenage children of one of the couples.
07/09/2013
Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

In an interview with PennLive’s Ivey DeJesus, Hanes said he believes he was upholding the Constitution – despite Pennsylvania’s ban on same-sex unions.

“It’s part of progress,” he said. “The arc of progress is up. I think I’m on the right side of history and on the right side of the Constitution and the law.”

Hanes was following in the footsteps of former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who issued licenses to same-sex couples in one historic month in 2004. At the time, Newsom argued that the equal-protection clause in the California constitution gave him the right to issue the licenses.

Craig Andrussier, the non-denominational minister who performed the service, told DeJesus he didn’t know whether the couple had a contingency plan in place if the state stepped in to nullify their union.

It would be a shame – if not unexpected – if the state broke up a union between two loving people who want nothing more than to be treated exactly the same and granted the same protections under the law as any other married couple in Pennsylvania.

Even if that happens, these two brave women have kicked open a door that cannot be closed. An as we have noted so often before, it’s now not a matter if gay marriage will be legal in Pennsylvania, but when.